Ex-state police official calls for probe of missing money

In the waning hours of 2001, Wilson Osorio was driving east on I-290 in Auburn in a 1992 Volkswagen Golf when a state trooper noticed “excessive window tint” and “no inspection sticker” on the car.

That was enough reason for Trooper Brendhan S. Shugrue to pull the car over. Inside, the trooper found a hidden dashboard panel and $31,370 in U.S. currency, marijuana and drug packaging material.

The unemployed 28-year-old Dominican was arrested and charged with possession of the drug with intent to distribute. The drugs and cash were seized after the 8:40 p.m. stop, and Mr. Osorio was taken to the Holden barracks of the state police for booking.

Ten days later, after the evidence was thought to have been safely locked away in a safe in the Holden barracks, the money was discovered missing by Sgt. James Nanof, the asset forfeiture officer.

The combination safe was inside the office of Major Stephen C. Leary, who commanded Troop C operations in Central Massachusetts. Only the major and Sgt. Nanof had the combination to the old black safe with gold-leaf lettering and a silver dial.

The major would later be among the top C Troop brass re-assigned after the money disappeared.

The money was never found.

The cloud of doubt that was left over how his command ended in C Troop still troubles Major Leary, who retired in 2004. For the first time since he was transferred and retired, in an interview with the Telegram & Gazette he called for a new look at the investigation and asked that the state attorney general investigate.

The cold case remains open, so Telegram & Gazette access to the investigative report was denied by the state police. Also denied was access to the arrest report from the night of the arrest and seizure.

Major Leary said not a day goes by that he does not think about what happened to the money and how it disappeared.

There were no signs of a break-in at the major's office, a small, second-floor room with natural wood walls. The office was once a bedroom for troopers decades ago when they lived in the barracks in the paramilitary department.

For the first time commenting on the missing money in 12 years, Major Leary said, “there was absolutely no sign of tampering” with the old safe on that day.

He recalls getting the call from his second in command, Capt. Joseph Parmakian, while he was at the Leominster state police barracks for a routine meeting with area police chiefs.

The major said his reaction was “total shock — disbelief — this can't be.”

After a sufficiently speedy return to the Holden barracks, he immediately notified state police headquarters in Framingham and then began a frantic search of the entire Holden station.

“I started running around … I checked every single drawer and desk — everything was checked and searched.”

Two captains from state police internal affairs were sent to the Holden barracks and Col. Thomas J. Foley put together a team of investigators.

The major said state police chemical lab workers arrived and printed and photographed the office and safe, and even swabbed it for DNA.

Curiously, a brick-sized hunk of cash, $20,000, in the same safe was undisturbed, along with smaller amounts of seized cash.

Lt. Joseph L. Brooks, who worked out of headquarters in Framingham, was assigned to conduct the investigation. A state police classmate of the major from 1969, and now running a private investigation business, the retired lieutenant said he wrote a 90-page report on the results of his investigation.

Although he declined to discuss the contents of the report because the state police say it is still an open case, he offered, “It leaves a cloud of suspicion over the state police itself. We don't have the answers.”

Although the lengthy report is locked away with the state police, then colonel and superintendent of the state police Thomas J. Foley told the Telegram & Gazette in a recent interview, “I made the best effort possible to find out what happened there.”

The retired colonel admits the awkward position he and the department were in when the news broke that a large sum of money was missing from a place where it should have been the most secure:

“This is difficult for me to deal with. It is embarrassing. There was no one who wanted to know more about what happened to that money than me.”

The disappearance of the money was never deemed a crime, so the probe was not handed over to then District Attorney John J. Conte's office for prosecution.

Asked if he thought a crime had been committed, the retired colonel said, “I don't know.”

He added, “If there was a person that we could have tied this to — that person would have been prosecuted fully.”

The retired colonel then speculated.

“It could have been sloppy handling of the evidence by the individual who took the money, misplacing it. Certainly it was misplaced one way or the other because it should have been taken and locked in a safe,” he said.

He even questioned, “Was it left on the roof of a cruiser and (it) drove off?”

The man who may know whether the money was locked in the safe declined comment when asked recently about the missing money. When reached by telephone at his current assignment as a detective with the Worcester District Attorney's office, Sgt. Nanof, the asset forfeiture officer 12 years ago in Holden, referred all questions to state police headquarters.

Sgt. Nanof had been called in that night, Dec. 30, 2001, to take possession of the money. Procedure required him to label the evidence, to place it in a bag, and to put it into the safe in the major's office.

The money also should have been counted three or even four times by at least two troopers on duty at the time of the booking of Mr. Osorio.

And Trooper Shugrue, who might be able to shed light on whether a package of cash was possibly placed on a state police cruiser's roof, did not return a telephone call to the Springfield barracks where he works.

Since the investigation is still officially “open,” as a matter of state police policy, neither man is allowed to comment.

As for Mr. Osorio, he could not be located for comment for this story. His attorney at the time, Anthony M. Salerno, said recently he did not know where his client was. As for the criminal case, Mr. Osorio failed to appear at one of his 2002 court hearings so a warrant for his arrest is outstanding. The case remains open.

But in 2002, the state police may have wanted the case to go away.

Mr. Salerno last week said that in 2002 he had conversations with members of the state police about resolving the case in light of the missing money. They indicated they would not oppose Mr. Salerno's attempts to seek a dismissal of the charges.

Court documents at the time indicate Mr. Salerno alleged that the $31,370 — evidence that he said was crucial to the case — had been “stolen” and that Mr. Osorio had been harmed as a result. He also argued Mr. Osorio was denied his right to a fair trial because of the Commonwealth's “loss and/or destruction” of evidence.

While those arguments were being made 12 years ago, DA Conte's office sought forfeiture of the seized, although missing, cash.

Asked whether he thought the time has come to release Lt. Brooks' internal investigation, Col. Foley said, “That is not up to me. I don't know what the status is at this time. I don't think you will find anything that surprising except that interviews were done and follow up was taken.”

The retired colonel acknowledges that Major Leary was never a suspect in the case of the missing cash.

Even so, when the major's children asked him years ago what happened to the money, that brought the embarrassment home in a painful way.

And even though the major wasn't implicated, and in the colonel's words, “was a very competent individual,” Col. Foley shook up the command staff in C Troop and transferred top staff who oversaw more than 200 troopers in the troop's seven Central Massachusetts barracks.

“The problem at the time, when something like that happens, someone is responsible,” said the retired colonel.

The investigation, he said, was not making any headway.

“I felt that was the least something we could do.”

In the wake of the scandal, four C Troop command staffers were sent to new assignments; Major Leary, his second-in-command Capt. Joseph Parmakian, who was the executive officer, the operations officer, Lt. Raymond Spirlet and Sgt. Nanof, the asset forfeiture officer.

State police made it clear the reassignments were not punitive, “but the department determined that in order to implement new systems, new personnel were necessary.” No disciplinary action was ever taken against anyone in connection with the missing cash.

Capt. Parmakian, who in a recent interview noted he was in Maine at the time the money was seized, attested to the retired major's “high moral fiber.”

“It is a shame it happened on his watch and that it was not buttoned down.”

Although he has no evidence to prove it, the retired captain said he believes the cash never made it into the safe.

The retired captain is not the only person to raise that as a possibility.

State police spokesman David Procopio said state police could not rule out several possible scenarios that include:

• The money was not put in the safe that night, was left unattended, and was taken by someone.

•The money was placed in the safe that night, but the safe was not locked, allowing someone to take the cash.

•The cash was put in the safe and later removed by “authorized personnel for legitimate reasons,” but was then left unattended and taken by someone.

And the final scenario that Mr. Procopio suggests is that the safe in the major's office was accidentally left unsecured and the money was taken by someone.

In the end, Mr. Procopio said, “Our investigation did not yield sufficient evidence to seek criminal charges against anyone.”

Major Leary is asking for another look.

“I would like to have an independent review, and if necessary a further investigation by the attorney general's office or the inspector general's office,” he said.

The attorney general's office did not offer a comment for this story.

The major added, “I believe since the closure of the investigation that there may be more people with information that could possibly help solve this case.”

He explained that both the attorney general and the inspector general have investigative tools that were not available to the state police because the probe was handled only as an internal affairs investigation. Both the AG and IG can use subpoenas, and if necessary, offer immunity to witnesses.

“Whatever it takes, period,” the retired major said adamantly.

Contact Reporter Gerard F. Russell at grussell@telegram.com.

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